LETTER: Councillor Slack should have some respect and resign

Labour’s apparent unwillingness to face up to their problems with anti-Semitism have been widely documented in the national papers recently.

Whilst it claims to take the issue seriously, it has failed, yet again in my view, to follow through with any serious action.

In Chesterfield, Hasland councillor Andy Slack has faced calls to resign from the council after he shared a post on Facebook which featured a caricature of a hook-nosed Israeli soldier with a bloody mouth alongside anti-semitic conspiracy theories. The bloody mouth appears to be a reference to the medieval blood libel that Jews kidnapped and ate Christian babies.

In my view, if Coun Slack had any respect for the electorate he would have resigned. Coun Slack has however refused to resign and the Chesterfield Labour Party has chosen to only give him a ‘slap on the wrist’ by removing some special responsibilities, after suspending him from the Labour Party for just a few days.

Labour had the opportunity in Chesterfield to demonstrate its commitment to dealing with these issues in a robust way — sadly, in my opinion, it has chosen to try to sweep the issues under the carpet.

At the time of writing, Chesterfield Council’s investigation into Coun Slack’s conduct was yet to be completed.